Lionel Messi’s visit to India should have been a celebration of football. Instead, it became a mirror reflecting uncomfortable truths about how India engages with sport.
The frenzy surrounding the GOAT India Tour, especially the chaotic scenes in Kolkata, revealed a country that passionately worships sporting icons but struggles to truly love sport itself. Messi did not fail Indian football. Indian sporting culture failed to understand what it was consuming.
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The Kolkata leg of Messi’s visit ended in disappointment and disorder. Thousands of fans, many paying significant sums, were left angry when Messi spent barely minutes on the pitch before being escorted away amid security concerns. Bottles were thrown, structures damaged, and demands for refunds followed. The visuals were jarring, but the reasons behind them ran deeper than poor event management.
This was not just a logistical failure it was a cultural one. The event was never designed around football. It was designed around proximity to a star. Once that proximity was denied, frustration boiled over.
Why Messi Was Never Going to Play
Much of the outrage stemmed from unrealistic expectations that Messi would play, even briefly. In modern elite football, that is virtually impossible. Messi is insured as a billion-dollar asset. His contracts and disability insurance strictly prohibit participation in non-sanctioned matches or exhibitions due to catastrophic financial risk. Any injury outside official club or national duty could void insurance coverage worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
This reality is standard across global football but largely misunderstood in India. We still romanticize access to stars without understanding the professional frameworks that govern them. That disconnect fuels disappointment and feeds the illusion that sport can be imported as a spectacle.
The Business of Celebrity, Not Football
Financially, the Messi tour was never about football development. Estimates suggest the appearance fee and logistics alone ran into ₹150–200 crore. To recover that cost, organisers sold exclusivity handshakes, photo-ops, private dinners, VIP access often priced in lakhs. The football itself was incidental. Sponsors leveraged Messi’s aura to sell aspiration: real estate, luxury branding, corporate visibility. In effect, Messi became a walking billboard. This is not inherently wrong but it must be acknowledged for what it is. A luxury marketing activation, not a sporting investment.
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The tragedy lies in opportunity cost. The same money could fund India’s I-League for years, support dozens of academies, or run sustained youth competitions across states. Instead, it vanished in a two-day spectacle.
Star Worship Is Not Football Love
India’s reaction to Messi fits a larger pattern across sports. Crowds flock for icons, not competition. In badminton, world-class matches featuring Carolina Marin or Tai Tzu Ying often play to empty stands, while PV Sindhu or Lakshya Sen attract thousands regardless of opponent. In cricket, Ranji Trophy matches struggle for spectators unless a national hero is involved.
This hero-centric culture creates a fragile ecosystem. Domestic leagues fail to grow because they lack stars. Stars fail to emerge because leagues lack investment. Into this vacuum step foreign icons expensive, fleeting, and disconnected from grassroots impact.
We don’t fall in love with the process of sport training, tactics, rivalries, leagues. We fall in love with faces.
The Contrast With 2011
Messi’s 2011 visit to India tells a different story. That trip featured a FIFA-sanctioned international match between Argentina and Venezuela. Messi played, competed, assisted a goal, and delivered a memory rooted in football. Fans left fulfilled because the event respected the sanctity of the sport.
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The 2024 visit stripped football out of the equation. What remained was access politics, VIP culture, and photo-op economics. When politicians and elites crowded the pitch, blocking views and rushing selfies, it symbolised another Indian problem status extraction overpowering fan experience.
The irony is stark. While crores are mobilized overnight to host a global star, Indian football’s governing bodies routinely underspend even modest development grants. Youth leagues, referee programmes, and coaching education remain underfunded or poorly executed.
This is not just about money it is about intent. Celebrity events offer instant visibility and political mileage. Grassroots football offers slow, unglamorous returns. India repeatedly chooses the former.
What Messi’s Visit Should Change
Messi’s visit will not improve Indian football rankings. It will not stabilize leagues or produce players. But it should change the conversation. It should force us to ask:
- Why are we willing to pay crores for a handshake but hesitate to fund a district league?
- Why do we blame stars for not playing, instead of understanding professional sport realities?
- Why does aspiration matter more than participation?
If the lesson is learned, Messi’s visit could become a turning point—not because of what happened on the pitch, but because of what it revealed off it.
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Great sporting nations do not import greatness they build it. Japan did not become a football power by hosting stars; it invested in schools, coaches, and leagues. Morocco did not rise by celebrity tours; it built academies and systems.
India’s obsession with stars is understandable. Icons inspire.
But inspiration without infrastructure is illusion.
Messi came. He smiled. He waved. He will leave.
Indian football remains where it was.
Whether that changes now depends not on the next superstar we invite but on whether we finally decide to love sport more than stars.
